Hardware Development

The Glow Labs team of IoT engineering specialists produce reliable, cost effective, and beautiful products. Our lead system engineer works with the electrical, mechanical, and software engineers to ensure they are collaborating to meet your goals through every step of development.

Component Selection

We select the highest quality components for maximum reliability and affordable production. Before prototyping, we work with you to select the best communication protocol for your device. We can work with Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, RS232, RS485, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), LoRa, NarrowBand-IoT, LTE Cat M, Cellular, and Satellite communication protocols to get your device connected.

Once we know how the device will communicate, we need to decide how it will be powered. For wearables and wireless devices we typically use Lithium Ion rechargeable batteries or standard alkalines. For increased battery life we can create a solar charging system. If your device will be plugged into the wall we help with transformer selection, voltage and amperage, and energy efficiency.

For prototypes and POCs we leverage existing platforms like the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Electric Imp, and ESP8266 to rapidly demonstrate functionality.

For the final stage of development, we select compatible MCUs powerful enough for our prototype code and miniaturize all electronics to accommodate your design constraints.

Product Design

Your product should be as beautiful as it is smart. We use industry leading 3D modeling software from SolidWorks and Autodesk to create 3D mock-ups and schematics of your product. Your input is invaluable during the design process. We ensure the final product meets or exceeds your design goals.

Our in-house 3D printer and CNC machine let us prototype your design in plastic, wood, or aluminum quickly and present you with a physical product early in the design process.

Once the design is finalized, we work with overseas suppliers to create molds and get your product into production.

PCB Design & Fabrication

We use Altium Designer and Autodesk EAGLE to design custom PCBs and miniaturize the electronics of your product. Our electrical engineers fully document and test every circuit to ensure long-term reliability.

We design PCBs in all shapes, sizes, and colors to meet your needs.

We leverage quick-turn PCB production and assembly facilities to rapidly produce PCB prototypes. Despite our rigorous testing to today’s highest quality assurance guidelines, our PCBs take weeks and minimal iterations to finish instead of months.

Ready for Production

We get you ready for full scale manufacturing. We’ll create everything the factory needs to produce your product at scale and at a price point that works for you. Our team will provide you with CAD drawings, functional diagrams, a Bill Of Materials, and full ownership of all intellectual property created for your project.

We can work with a manufacturer of your choice, or introduce you to manufacturers we’ve worked with in the past. We’ll help you evaluate your options and test samples from the manufacturers you are considering.

Embedded Firmware

We start each firmware project by assigning the various GPIOs, UART, I2C, and SPI on the embedded device. We then write firmware to read, monitor, and control the components connected to the board.

Once the components are working as expected, we optimize the code for efficiency and performance. This keeps processor usage and power consumption to a minimum.

The next step is developing the communication method to connect your device to a hub, the internet, a data repository, an app, or whatever is most appropriate for your product. Regardless of the connection method, we take the security of your device very seriously.

The final stage is rigorously testing the firmware. We ensure that the device can receive bad data and self heal if an exception occurs.

Depending on the chipset that is used, we can implement over-the-air (OTA) updates that automatically keep your devices future-proof and running the latest firmware.

Cloud Server Software

Cloud Servers are the central connection point for many IoT projects. Devices, apps, and data all meet at the cloud server.

The typical Glow Labs Cloud Platform comes with the main components most custom solutions require; security, data storage, communications and more. This gives us a great starting point and is fully customizable to your needs.

• Glow Labs Cloud Platform standard stack: Node.js, MongoDB, Express, Socket.io, HTTPS.
• Glow Labs Cloud Platform optional add-ons: Angular.js, MySQL, SQLite, OAuth, Passport, and many more.

Complete server setup including SSL certificate installation, web-server configuration, load balancing, and backups are handled by us. We can either transfer the cloud server to you on project completion or maintain it on an ongoing basis.

IoT Platforms

We can build you an IoT product platform from scratch, or leverage powerful platforms such as Electric Imp and Losant to get you off the ground rapidly.

When we build your IoT platform, you get a fully customized backend designed precisely for your device. Initial development costs tend to be higher but long-term maintenance costs will be lower. We’ve built IoT products on $10 per month cloud servers.

When we leverage an existing IoT platform, your product can be developed rapidly and cost-effectively. We’ll consult with you to select the best platform for your project priorities.

Do you have a platform you’d like to use? We pride ourselves on the capability to develop in any programming language and on any IoT platform.

Apps for Control

In a marketplace crowded with overengineered apps, the user experience is what makes good products stand out. We focus on designing apps that are intuitive, fun, and powerful for your users.

We build mobile apps with cross-platform tools like Phonegap, or with native languages like Swift and Java. Our web apps are typically a node.js stack and are always responsive, dynamic, and secure.

We have a UX/UI designer on staff who creates mockups of web and phone app interfaces for your approval. Every app we create is designed to the highest standard of excellence and with your branding. We will demonstrate your apps on a computer, iPad, iPhone, Android Tablet, and Android Phone so you know exactly what to expect the first time you use your product.

APIs and Integration

Consumers want products with integration to their favorite platforms. Stand out by making your product work with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Control4, Crestron, HomeKit, IFTTT, Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce, and more. We can also build and document a RESTful API so other companies can update their products to be compatible with yours.

Regardless of whether you want an open API, you will get full ownership of all the software we create for you and an API handbook on how to edit it. This lets you hire your own team of developers to build on your product in the future.

Software Development

By taking a holistic approach to IoT development we ensure that the software and hardware integrate seamlessly. Our lead system engineer designs the software and ensures experts in each field (iOS, Android, SSL, OAuth, AWS, Node.js, etc.) build their components to fit together perfectly.

OUR CLIENTS SAID

From the first time I talked to Josh Ferguson, I was impressed by his level of technical expertise and professionalism.  Josh walked me through every step, from initial design through wiring and final installation.  Josh was always there to provide guidance and to answer my questions.

Josh provided the needed insights to deliver a well engineered solution for the price I needed. 

In this day of customer service being sent offshore and long waits on hold, it’s a pleasure doing business with a company who puts the customer first.

What really impressed us was Josh’s responsiveness to customer support issues: we had the usual inevitable queries and questions and Josh answered these immediately and correctly – he had memorized our system specification better than we had. I thoroughly recommend Josh Ferguson to any British (and other) customers. He is a rare example of a businessman who understands that his business depends on top class customer service and he delivers it.

From the beginning, I was impressed. The design phase was detailed and complex, but the process was simple and straightforward: PDF design files e-mailed back and forth until we were both happy with the results. The equipment arrived in stages, and only when I needed it. Impressive, especially considering that we were 1,500 miles apart!

Let’s get started

What can we make for you?